"There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth
are absent."
Leo Tolstoy

Monday, January 09, 2017

O'Leary

Kevin O'Leary is muttering about entering the Conservative leadership race. Lisa Raitt is trying to head him off at the pass. She'll do us all a favour if she succeeds. Michael Harris writes:

Bottom line? O’Leary will flounder in the Smart Tank because he knows
squat about Canada and is about as homegrown as a banana. He is a de
facto American trying to rewrite the history of the War of 1812.
Instead of getting even for the burning of Washington, O’Leary merely
wants to muck out Ottawa with a spatula, which is a strange implement of
choice for a dragon, right? A tongue of flame, a swishing tail, raking
claws, sure. But a spatula?

And why should O’Leary delay announcing his entry into the CPC
leadership race until after the French-language debate just because he
doesn’t speak French? Whenever his turn came to speak, he could just
hold up his bank book and show Quebeckers the balance. In O’Leary’s
world, money talks and bull roar perambulates. How else could he
actually say that he understands what Quebecers want?

O'Leary went to English language private schools when he grew up in Quebec and then headed to the University of Waterloo. He lived his life entirely in the English Solitude. Like Stephen Harper, he believes he doesn't need support in Quebec to become prime minister.

But he needs Alberta. And consider what he says about that province:

Consider his rantings on behalf of the Corporate Kleptocracy against
Rachel Notley. The Alberta premier is to blame for Alberta’s
skyrocketing unemployment rate, the plummeting dollar, and yes,
Calgary’s loss in the Grey Cup.

Not a word about Conservative politicians in Alberta who let foreign
multinationals cash in on the tar sands with pathetically low royalty
rates (compare Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund to Alberta’s), and who
never thought to diversify the provincial economy against the day when
the oil wealth would be gone. Forty years of never asking the “what if”
question.

O’Leary’s answer to Notley’s alleged screw ups – even more spineless
concessions to the oil patch. On new oil and gas production capital
expenditures, he wants to let the investor write off the entire
investment in the year it occurred, and give a 36-month royalty
“holiday” on any new capital investment. Increase the already gaudy
returns for investors and all will be well.

Like his hero, Donald Trump, he's appallingly ignorant of the country he proposes to lead. Let's hope that Canadians -- and, more importantly, Conservatives -- have learned something from recent events to our south.

14 comments:

The only thing Conservatives would have learned from events down south is that Trump is about to be potus. They, and I do mean every single one of the small minded turdlets, are concerned about one thing and one thing only and they watched in rapt drooling fascination as bigotry, narcissism and ignorance won bigly.

.. suggest you lower any expectations regarding O'Leary .. In my view he's an opportunist only looking to expand or enhance his public persona.. & that's simple vanity or greed.. somewhat different from the toxic ideological ego path of smartest guy in the room Stephen Harper.. or latter day lesser snouts, Saint Kellie & St Kouvalis Inc.. or the preening foppery of Scheer or Blaney who also seek to raise their public stature & profit within the private partisan club - The Conservative Party of Canada.

You know, get a seat at the head table rather than seated nowhere near the warm glow of the Commons cameras, the eager but lazy mainstream media attention. O'Leary will 'play it' & he has the $$ to stay in the poker game.. see who folds. But make no mistake, he does not want to enter the dirty little world of partisan politics.. No, he's a wordly man, interested in wines, travel, and spouting off on how smart he is.

Glibness is useful to an extent.. Just read some of the convoluted defenses Donald Trump threw up (vomited) about how he did not mock a disabled journalist.. These are case studies in deflection, denial & bald faced deceit.. backed of course by a now locked n loaded spin machine & that bizarre entity - the Republican Tea Party, willing & able to hitch a ride on a Mississipi sleigh ride to ignomy & political oblivion. Goodness, do these creeps order a side of lead poisoning at every meal? Or are they mainlining it in liquid form.

The mad hatters, the Alice in Wonderland gang plunging down their own private rabbit hole.. fat, content, greedy.. unwilling to accept that a honey badger, or worse.. a wolverine has moved into their fantasy world.. They talk about 8 years ? When the nasty beast called 'Media' turns on these folk it won't be pretty.. But how frauds, phonies, fakers, snake oil salesmen n women are allowed to be public servants, is astonishing. Good luck Mr O'Leary.. like all the other Harper drones.. you've shown us nothing... nothing but lip flapping & expensive suits ..

I think O'Leary knows how far he's managed to get by staying just far enough out of the public eye. He can boast of his acumen on TV shows but exposed under a bright light he's a much different "businessman" with a chequered history.

I caught an interview with Charles Bronfman on the CBC awhile ago, Mound. He said he knows people who have done business with Trump who vow they'll never do business with him again. I suspect you could find people who have done business with O'Leary who would say the same thing.

Thing about O'Leary is, he's not a populist. I'm sure he's just as vain and blusters just as hard as Trump, but the man seems incapable of opening his mouth without trumpeting the joys of globalized turbocharged capital and how wonderful the super-rich are. Trump appealed to people's resentment of all that--implausibly as all get out, but he did (and boy are lots of them going to be upset if they figure out how bad he's deceived them). O'Leary appeals only to billionaires' resentment of still paying the tiniest smidge of taxes, and I suspect he'll be really bad at pretending different. I think he's going nowhere.

About Me

A retired English teacher, I now write about public policy and, occasionally, personal experience. I leave it to the reader to determine if I practice what I preached to my students for thirty-two years.